The Power of Thunder
by broken-inside-x
Summary: When Hermione gets stuck at Harrys during a thunderstorm, will tension arise between them, with Teddy sound asleep up in his room?
1. Chapter 1

A/N- not sure if i ike this story, but decided to write it anyway :)  
let me know wat you think :)x

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"Harry? Is that Teddy screaming the place down?" Hermione calls from the doorway as she takes her black coat off, hanging it on the coat hanger by Harry's front door.

_No Hermione it's me screaming. Of course it's Teddy. I'm not stupid enough to say that out loud though, I mean I know she's my best friend and all but to get on the wrong side of Hermione is like digging your own grave and burying yourself alive._

"Yeah in the kitchen, 'Mione"

_She's come to pick up her books I'm guessing, straight from work by the looks of her clothes. She's changed a lot since school. I guess we've all grown up, I mean we are 20 after all. Ron and I continued to grown in height and now tower over Hermione, she reaches up to my shoulder level at the most. Ron's still ginger of course and his hair is still as shaggy but he's not as idiotic as he used to be, more responsible now that Luna's pregnant with their first child. They're married now, god it seems like that day was only yesterday, and they were both so happy. Still are.  
__Me? Well I continue to be single despite my dashing good looks. Or it might have something to do with only being wanted because of my status as the boy-who-lived. I guess being an auror helps boost my status even more. Teddy lives with me now. He's 3 this year, God they grow up so fast._

"Harry, are you daydreaming while that child is sitting there screaming? How could you ignore the poor child that way?" Hermione scolds as she lifts Teddy out of the highchair and balances him on her hip as she walks off towards the cupboard.

_But Hermione has defiantly grown the most. Maybe not in height. Her hair falls in sleek curls now, a good way down her back if she'd ever let them out of the ponytail she constantly wears it in. She's got more curves than she did in school but maybe not as much as other girls. She's pretty skinny too, because she doesn't eat unless she's here in grimould place. Says she doesn't find time being centre of the auror work force. She's the brains obviously.  
__She's not the same as she used to be before the war though. Never went back for her parents, she figured they'd be better off without her. Tore her apart inside I reckon. Her smile doesn't reach her eyes anymore. We've tried to help her. Ron and I. didn't do much good though._

"Harry can you reach Teddy's bottle for me? I'm a bit on the short side, and don't even think of making a sarcastic comment about my height"

_Damn, she knows me too well_

"Yes of course I could hep you Hermione" I say in the politest voice I can muster. At the sight of his bottle Teddy finally quietens down, thank heavens. "You do wonders with that child, Hermione." I say shaking my head in amazement.

_Teddy adores her. She's like his favourite aunty even though they're not technically related.  
__Aunty 'Mione. Ha that's funny._

"Right, I'm going to put Teddy to bed seeing as your still in your own world"

_As she walks past with Teddy and a bottle in her hand she bumps her hip against mine so that I stumble side wards._

"Hermione Granger, getting a bit violent are we?" I joke

Only its not her aggressiveness that worries me.  
It's the electricity that shoots through my body when we touch.


	2. Chapter 2

_I can hear Hermione singing Teddy to sleep upstairs; he loves it when she puts him to bed, always asking if Mione will be here in the morning._

_Sometimes she is._

_I remember one time she fell asleep curled up on the sofa, next to me. She'd had a stressful day at work and needed calming so we were watching her favourite film, Pirates of the Caribbean. I swear she only likes it for Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Anyway we were in the living room on the sofa and she fell asleep towards the end with her head on my chest and her legs entwined with mine. It made me feel weird having her next to me with her head resting on my chest._

_Not a bad weird. Just weird. _

"Teddy's finally dropped off boy wonder" Mione's voice teased " can save the world but cant put a 3 year old to bed, figures." She muttered unfortunately loud enough for me to hear

_Oh so that's what little muss know it all thinks of me I thought grinning. I shall have to teach her how to think nice thoughts._

_As she turned to collect her books from the kitchen table I crept behind her and tickled her ribcage_

"Harry….flaming…..Potter" she gasped between laughs "stop…cant….breath….laughing…..too hard" Hermione squirmed between his arms as she tried unsuccessfully to crawl from his strong grasp

"ohh no you don't little miss know it all"

_Ha see who's in control now Granger. I was so winning this tickle fight, not that she put up much of a fight when she caught her foot on Teddy's highchair and went crashing down to the floor, gracefully of course. Only not only did she go down but so did I._

_Right on top of her._

Hermione's laugh was the first to break the silence as Harry was stunned at their position. He had fallen directly on top of her with his hand resting on either side of her head to stop himself from crushing her. Her hair splayed out over his hands and her arms were held upwards and resting on his chest to protect her.

"You deserved to come crashing down you evil man" she laughed "but there was no need at all to bring me down too"

"Me? I wasn't the one who fell you liar" I said in mock outrage

"You always were a bad influence Harry Potter"

"And you always were to good for me Hermione Granger"

The playful atmosphere disappeared suddenly and they both realised exactly how close they were.

_Oh god I'm lying on top of her. My face is millimetres away from hers. Oh good lord I can feel her breath. Talk about tempting fate I thought to myself ironically._

_What do I do? Do what my heads telling me to do and make a joke of it all and get up quickly? Or do as my heart says and stay put and see what happens?_

_I'm staying put._

_It's those eyes. They would always be my downfall. Chocolate coloured. And they were staring straight at me at this moment in time._

_What do I do?_

_I lean closer and watch as her eyes close._


	3. Chapter 3

CRASH!!

The sound of thunder startled them both and quickly remembereing his position ontop of Hermione, he pushed himself up off the ground and offered her his hand which she soundlessly accepted, slipping her small hand into his. They stood there awkward surrounded by the fallen highchair, teddy's toys and the mess that was Harry Potter's silence continued longer than the two cared for.

_What did I just do? Or was about to do? Its Hermione, good ol Hermione. My best fiend! And I was bout to kiss her! That cant be good._

The pounding of rain interrupted Harry's thoughts and he focused to see Hermione peering out the window at the London street with its old metal railings and pre-war lamps. A man ran through the street holding his briefcase aloft. As he passed the house he glanced in Hermione's direction and winked. In another time that wink could have so much more dangerous and Harry would have been the first to have pointed out a problem with Hermione's safety, now it was just sleazy.

_Why was that? It should have been Ron who was more worried. He fancied her not me. Right? Ofcourse he has Luna nowand he's happy I didn't work with Mione. I could kiss her if I wanted to. NO! I'm not going to kiss her! I could ruin everything. Everything!! Not going to go there._

CRASH!!

The next bout of thunder accompanied with sudden flashes of lightening made Hermione jump and the startled look on her face reminded Harry that she wasn't fond of thunder or lightening_._

_Oh God. I can't let her go home in this. She'd be drowned by the time she got home not to mention the thunder and lightening. She'll have to stay here, she wont need to put her books into her bag or grab her coat so why is she?_

Harry watched as she reached up to grab her coat from the hanger out in the hallway, he hadn't noticed her move swiftly past him and out of the kitchen. He hadn't noticed how she diverted her eyes so that she didn't have to look at him and he certainly didn't notice the way she kept as mush distance as possible between them as she passed.

"Where are you going? Your not honestly going to brave that storm?" _I asked making sure my tone sounded as if I was pointing out the obvious which would defiantly annoy her_

"yes Harry I am braving the storm, you might be scared of a little rain but I'm sure not, now if you excuse me I need to get passed and I'll be back tomorrow night to babysit Teddy. Half 7 right?"

_Oh good lord. The date. How could I forget the first date I've had in nearly a year? It's with that redhead from the playgroup Teddy goes to while I work. What's her name? Trisha? …Trina ... Tasha? That's it Tasha. Pretty girl. Fairly tall girl, near enough my height and that's without the 6 inch heels she wears to work. I wonder what she'll wear tomorrow. Jeans maybe, I mean we're only going to the cinema. She doesn't look like a cover up girl though, more like a short skirt low top neckline kind of girl. Not like Hermione at all. I don't think she can ever walk in heels and she certainly wouldn't be caught dead I an outfit that revealing even with a body like hers. Have I mentioned her body? Curves in all the right places even though she's bordering on underweight. That's a workaholic for you I guess. No time for food if there's work to be done._

"Harry…Harry?"

"erm…what? I mean sure Hermione whatever you want"

_I have no idea what she was talking about. Think she'll notice?_

"You weren't listening were you? I was asking what time you want me here for and you spent 10 minutes staring into thin air. I mean come on Harry I need to get home before it gets any heavier, its already pouring buckets down"

_Yeah like I'm going to let her go home in this weather._

"Silly Hermione" Harry says, the teasing back in his voice "your staying here tonight, like I'm going to let you get struck by lightening walking home"

"typical I can face the greatest dark lord of all time but I cant walk home in the rain" she commented sarcastically dumping her bag back on the floor and hanging the coat back up. She trudged back into the kitchen to turn the kettle on and slump in the nearest chair.

_Ha! She knows not to argue with me. We've had this argument many times before about her walking home in the dark just because she won't apparate because she likes to walk like a muggle. It's just typical Hermione._

"So you want tea?"

_I miss the question and she has to repeat it several times before I answer. Although the awkwardness has gone and we're back to normal, teasing each other as we settle on the couch in the front room to watch a bit of T.V I wonder if I missed a golden opportunity._


	4. Chapter 4

It was late in the night when Harry awoke from a nightmare. His hair was plastered to his head, covering his scar, shaking violently with tears streaming down his face. Looking around he realised he was still lying on the sofa with Hermione curled up fast asleep on the other end. His breaths came out on shaky gasps as he tried to control his breathing and return his heart rate to normal.

"Harry? Are you ok?" Hermione looked up at him, her hair a complete mess and her eyes looking very tired. She rubbed her eyes and looked at him as if seeing a different person. First thing she noticed were the tears and the tracks they left as the cascaded down his pale cheeks.

_Brilliant, I've woken Hermione up now. She sounds shattered as well, not like waking your best friend up when she needs the sleep._

"Yeah…course I am"

_Even better, my voice is cracking with bloody fright of all things and I'm crying, way to be a man. What is she doing?_

Hermione got up off her end of the sofa and dropped down next to him, curling her feet under her. Leaning towards him she wiped at the tears running down his cheeks.

"Nightmares?"

_God she's clever if she guessed that. What do I do now she knows? Deny it and be a big man? Tell her the truth? Let her know about the nightmare and that she was the only reason I was so scared. Surely if she knew that she'd guess that I being this scared over her hints at more than platonic feelings. Hold on, I don't have any other feelings towards her do I? I mean we're friends. Best friends. And it's not worth risking that right? Especially for an affair that probably wouldn't even last.9 years of friendship for a year at dating? Definitely not worth it. Why oh why was born as Harry bleedin Potter. Right find a distraction._

"You should go on up to bed, I do believe you have work in the morning Miss I-can't-miss-a-day, not to mention you look like you haven't slept in days"

_Ok I think my attempt at being normal has worked, she should go to bed now and that should end this conversation. That's right I'm not just a pretty face, I have the brains too._

"What was it this time Harry? Fred's death? Dumbledore's death? Teddy's? Your own?" her voice showed her desperation for him to talk to her. She knew he was having nightmares, she'd always known, they'd just never happened while she was staying at his house, and she'd never confronted him about it, scared that he'd build a wall between them and completely close himself off from her and Ron as he had done all those years ago.

_Why is she so clever? Of course she wasn't going to fall for that petty attempt at a distraction. But how do you tell your best friend you dreamt of her death? I mean she's only going to worry that it's her causing the pain. And it was definitely pain watching her die, even if it was a dream. I've never dreamt about some one who survived the war, dying. Not ever. This was definitely a first._

"It was none of them…I watched you die"

_I can't even look at her; I'm still shaking too which means my voice wavers as I tell her.1_

Hermione leaned towards him and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest. A small gesture but she has no idea what it really means to him.

"Malfoy had you; he was annoyed at me for winning, for defeating the dark side. Said that I should have known that getting through the war with both you and Ron still alive was impossible. I had to pay." He took a deep breath and carried on "We were in the Gryffindor common room and you were upstairs getting your stuff, ready to leave for Christmas, and he came down the stairs with… with a gun…not a wand…a bloody muggle gun to your head. He said he liked the blood it caused and it was so much more painful than the killing curse."

_I can't stop. My mouth seems to have gone into overload and I can't stop telling her about her own death. Oh and to make it all worse I'm crying again! What is wrong with me?_

"And he shot you and apparated away! He escaped while I tried so hard to save you. So bloody hard. I couldn't though and you died there in my arms with your blood all over my robes"

_I can't carry on it just too much. Reliving the nightmare._

Hermione hugs him even harder, clinging onto him as if her life did depend on it.

"The only time you've ever need saving. And I couldn't help you, after you saving my life millions of times I can't even save you once in a dream. And I meant to be the bloody man."

"Oh Harry" and she laughed as he cried.

And that's how they fell asleep, arms around each other and a tingling sensation in Harry's body wherever his skin touched hers.

**A/N I had an amazingly hard time writing this. Who knew writers block was so hard to get through :) but anyway please review and let me know if you think this one's as good as the other chapters. I honestly don't think it is**


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